Yamanba

[Rezz]

Had this sent to me by my sister in law:

This is 'Yamanba' style. The meaning of Yamanba has it's roots back in early times in Japan when cannibalism was rife in certain places due to food shortages, and an 'old hag woman' or 'Yama uba' would draw people out of the village so she could eat them. Actually it was just a story cooked up so that the villagers would fool themselves (and their children) into denying their own cannibalistic ways. The term used nowadays points more to the 'old hag' meaning rather than cannibalism of course lol...

Yamanba are generally looked down upon (it would take a very particular person not to) in Japan and the style also extends to the guys aswell, although not as prevalent as with the girls. There are magazines dedicated to this style, and of course clothing shopsetc dealing solely with Yamanba/Ganguro fashions and accessories. I've seen foreigners stop dead in the tracks and get a video camera out and film some Yamanba in Shinsaibashi in Osaka one time, with the Yamanba thinking they were a foreign film crew, so they did all these hand signs and poses right there in the middle of the mall... the foreigners were chuckling and just saying 'WTF! haha'.

The Yamanba style is an extention of 'Ganguro' (light hair colour, dark tanned skin) which itself is an extention of the 'bronzed/bleached hair look'. In most major cities in Japan you can see these sorts of girls getting around, but in Tokyo it's the worst. In fact that picture above is the worst I've seen yet, and my sister in law reckons those yellow stones under her eyes are actually PIERCED ON.

I did see a show one time on Japanese TV where it was a kind of mini-documentary following the 'sobering up' of an ex-Yamanba (who incidently had 2 kids). The biggest thing she had to overcome was taking all the Yamanba clothing and accessories and throwing them in the trash. They dealt with it like it was a disease or something, like a blight on society rather like unemployment or anti-social behaviour.

I think in the late '90s this style hit it's peak, but you can be sure to see these interesting creatures come out in summer in Japan these days aswell.

[sloazr33]

haha

KAWAII_hachi_roku's sister?

[Rezz]

Shhhhhhh! keep it down... I'm hoping he won't troll the Japan section anymore.

[qikstagea]

Saw HEAPS of these girls around harajuku, meiji-jingu-mae and yoyogi kooen area. bit of a hang-out area for them in tokyo.

Some of them do it quite tastefully and look quite nice. This one, however, is not an attractive sight.

my god.

where are your PARENTS!!??

[akeenan]

its pathetic when you groups of these people sitting around doing nothing in the steets of shibuya. its also more pathetic to see just guys with the same hair color same ratty style who think they are tough and cool.. when they are just homosexuals people want to beat up. and lets not get start on the parra parra. .... some of the gyaru's are quite attractive sometimes though (similar style but no where near extreem)

Edited July 16, 2006 by akeenan

[qikstagea]

pretty funny, really. Its wierd because some of them actually belive its attractive, and that it appeals to mens tastes. to some of them, yes. Like i said, some do it really well. most dont. Most do it just to be different.

They are the hardcore emo's of japan.

[Rezz]

"How do they go to the bathroom with all that shit on...?"

I think this 'Center guy' (thats what they call the male Yamanba) owns an AE86...

A spy shot of a group of Yamanba. I swear the one with the pink and yellow hair down the bottom looks like a psychadelic version of native American soldier 'Billy' from Predator...